The thrilling extended clash where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
